Totem Pole Item Number: E 1907.328 from the MAA: University of Cambridge
The catalogue card states A totem post bearing on the face, four deeply carved emblems picked out in red green and black paints. At the base a human figure with uplifted hands, above it a fish (?whale) head downwards, a human mask and a frog. In a letter from Glaisher to von Hugel he notes the figures are the woman, a whale, a chief, and a frog (CUMAA Archive 1, Letters Box 1907). The pole is very roughly and crudely carved.; Good
In the Annual Report 1908 the provenance for both E 1907.328 and 450 is Nootka Indians of the Frog tribe. This provenance was later discovered to be fraudulent. The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; From the correspondence mentioned above and below it would seem the totem poles wee made for sale to unsuspecting buyers of ethnographic artefacts, and as such are interesting examples of the possibly indigenous manufacture of artefakes (G.Crowther).; Collected by: ?Stadthagen.H